Can you believe the Zohan has never been to Israel?
Two new films and America's biggest comedy award, but Adam Sandler still hasn't visited the homeland of his 'IDF soldier turned hairdresser'
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
If you know your Adam Sandler films, you’ll spot the missing memorabilia. But as the actor, who is also a mogul producer, has starred in 86 movies, finding souvenirs from them all requires a team effort .
It’s enough that our edit includes Murder Mystery 2, his 87th movie now on Netflix and as a sequel to Murder Mystery 1, the pairing of Jennifer Aniston and Adam as married sleuths is always welcome.
Also included in our mix, and also new, is Hustle, in which Adam plays a veteran basketball scout so accurately, his a performance has been hailed as Oscar-worthy. He got the same critical acclaim for his portrayal of Howard Ratner, the fast-talking jeweller hedging too many bets in Uncut Gems. But for whatever reason, the increasingly woke Academy of Morion Pictures is not seeing what we see. If they were Adam would have several little gold men on his shelf, courtesy of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love or, more recently, in Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories.
It’s arguable that Adam’s screen debut back in 1989 as struggling cruise ship comic Shecky Moskowitz in Going Overboard paved the way to such comedy classics as Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer, but this premature typecasting as the hapless, but
loveable lead has impacted the judgement of blinkered voters who gave Brendon Fraser an Oscar last month for playing an obese gay man in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. Nice for Jewish director Aronofsky and for Fraser, but the jury had no problem seeing beyond his George of the Jungle, but failed to see the merit in Adam’s lonely, socially-awkward protagonist Barry Egan in Punch-Drunk Love.
No matter because just last week, Sandler, 56, received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour – and fellow actors turned up in droves to pay homage to the star. See Idina Menzel’s musical tribute as a taster and there were many others as Adam keeps his coterie of film star pals gainfully employed by his production company Happy Madison (a portmanteau of his first two film successes) which has an ongoing movie deal with Netflix.
He doesn’t employ us or even offer ‘person walking-by’ appearances, but we love him because he wrote The Chanukah Song and keeps reinventing it: plays a lot of characters with ‘Stein’ or ‘Levine’ as their surname and is about to make the film of Fiona Rosenbloom’s book You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah! starring alongside his daughters, Sadie and Sunny.
Recently director Quentin Tarantino revealed that he wrote a role in 2009’s Inglourious Basterds specifically for Adam Sandler, but the actor declined as he was already filming Judd Apatow’s Funny People.
Maybe Tarantino, who now lives in Israel, will consider Adam for a role in The Movie Critic, the film he claims will be his last. If he does, he should invite him to visit, as he has yet to put a toe in the Holy Land. Yes, the actor who so accurately played Israeli soldier turned hair stylist in the 2008 comedy You Don’t Mess with the Zohan has never been there. It’s on his bucket list along with improving his golf and guitar skills. “I also wish I could speak another language, like fluent Hebrew,” he admitted.
We know a place where that’s achievable. Next year in Jerusalem, Adam? Now watch Idina Menzel’s tribute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGOwZCsAC9w
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
